Google’s Search Advocate John Mueller Reveals Tips On How To Land Jobs At Top Tech Companies

Today’s world is as competitive as it gets. We’re looking at some of the biggest companies being stricter in terms of hiring. But if you happen to be wondering what’s the secret behind the process, you might want to read on.

John Mueller is Google’s top search advocate and now, he’s giving out some interesting work-related tips on how you can get hired at a leading tech firm.

A recently published thread on Reddit saw one user asking for some much-needed advice on how to really land a great job at one of the biggest tech firms out there, Google.

The company’s Search Advocate, John Mueller has reportedly been with the firm since the year 2007, and he really did manage to give out a great response with plenty of valuable insights.

He knows that many feel that landing a job at the search engine giant can be an absolute dream journey. But it’s crucial to keep in mind that hiring in such firms as large and complex as Google is always a competitive affair.

Nevertheless, with such great advice, so many job applicants can really do a great job at positioning themselves to get what they’ve longed for so long. Moreover, Mueller added how those trying to increase their chances of getting a dream job can do so with a simple guide.

This entails making more contacts, getting ready for interviews, and building some great skills along the way too. So we’re going to be discussing each one of those in detail for you below.

Firstly, the goal is to enhance your skills and get the right contacts from the industry. Mueller says that there are some great job applicants out there that really take out due time to get their skills on point and attain knowledge of a certain degree while trying to know more people.

For that, he advises studying and contributing more to projects that are more open-source in nature, despite it not being coding. Moreover, these efforts end up putting the user in the driving seat whenever job openings come again.

While he does work for Google, Mueller says that he can’t speak on behalf of the firm. But keeping in mind the current economic situation, he does recommend people to get on board with some great skills and some wonderful knowledge of a certain degree.

That would seriously make you look into jobs after things start to pick up the pace. And until then, don’t slack off, he adds.

This happens to be the time to build more contacts in the industry. And remember, this also happens to be the time when a lot of people are putting a pause on hiring and focusing more on carrying out layoffs.

As you can imagine, getting jobs in such downturn economic situations can be hard and very chaotic. So you might want to wait for things to get better with time instead of rushing.

Next, he says it’s time to start seeing more openings for jobs and that means preparing full throttle for interviews. A lot of training is necessary depending on what type of position you might be willing to attain.

A good tip by Mueller is to find a person that might be in the same rank that you happen to be interested in. Meet them and start to ask them questions.

Once you start answering queries in an objective manner and provide the necessary stats with that instead of personal opinions, you’ve already won.

Hence, the moral is to keep an eye out for job postings and start interview training regarding such postings. After all. It’s great to be a smart person and go into something that is less stressful by having a knowledgeable background of what’s going on.

As far as coding is concerned, Mueller says to read books to get handy tips. Meanwhile, for the likes of non-coding, there might be books too but knowing someone that’s familiar with such domains is always helpful.

Last but not least, he says that the motto should always be linked to never getting discouraged. Don’t get your hopes up and don’t focus on just one firm or a single location.

Even if your interview goes fabulous, it does not mean you’ve gotten the job.

Read next: Workers Waste 58% of Their Day in Useless Meetings
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

WhatsApp for Business Just Got Status Update Advertising Capabilities

WhatsApp has been doing a lot of work trying to upgrade its messaging platform because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up keeping the users coming in. It turns out that the messaging app is leaning heavily towards business users, since they can help make the platform more relevant than might have been the case otherwise.

An upcoming update for WhatsApp is likely going to make things easier for businesses with all things having been considered and taken into account. This update will enable businesses to advertise their Status Updates, as spotted by WBI. Many enterprises regularly update their statuses on WhatsApp so that they can get more eyes on their products and services, but in spite of the fact that this is the case this update is likely going to take things to another level.

What’s more, businesses will now have the ability to advertise their status updates on Facebook as well as Instagram. If you are a WhatsApp for Business user, you can simply post a status and tap on the “Boost” button that will be featured just below it. That will enable your business to show its products to users on Facebook, something that will greatly expand your consumer base and help you keep the money coming in.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that this update is only going to be available to those that use WhatsApp for Business. It is currently unknown if this feature will make it to the regular version of WhatsApp, but it seems unlikely.

WhatsApp wants to make its Business app a bigger player than it is right now. Updates like these will go a very long way towards making that happen. It will be interesting to see if any more updates are around the corner. The more WhatsApp emphasizes its business users, the closer it will get to its goal of being the one and only messaging app for the business community. The next update will indicate the trajectory of the app in the near future.

Read next: WhatsApp is working on two updates meant to help group chat members and admins have a safe experience
by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

This Chart Highlights the Origins and Destinations of Plastic Waste

The presence of plastic waste is among the biggest challenges facing the world because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up creating waste that will never break down. Our World in Data compiled information from various sources into a chart that outlines where plastic waste comes from as well as where it usually ends up with all things having been considered and taken into account.

The first thing that stands out in this chart is that over 350 million tons of plastic waste are produced each and every year. With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that a lot of this waste simply ends up in landfills which makes it more likely to cause pollution than might have been the case otherwise.

By far the most significant exporter of plastic waste is Germany, with the European nation producing an estimated 853 million kilograms of plastic waste on an annual basis. Coming in at a close second is Japan with a little over 820 million, followed by the US with 624 million. Every single country in the top ten list save for Japan is part of the Western Hemisphere, with 8 out of the 10 nations hailing from the continent of Europe.

In spite of the fact that this is the case, the list of countries that import the most plastic waste features far more Asian nations. At the top of this list is Malaysia which imports an estimated 715 million kilograms of plastic waste annually, followed by Turkiye at just under 620 million kilograms. Germany comes in third with 567 million kilograms, although this is still a massive shortfall from the waste they export

East and Southeast Asian nations often have to deal with the plastic waste produced by more developed countries. That can create a huge problem, since the countries that are responsible for this waste are often the least likely to have to deal with it and that can create a massive imbalance around the world.

Read next: Unemployment Rates Skyrocket Throughout the World, Here are the Countries Most Affected
by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

New Lawsuit Holds Social Media Apps Accountable For Teen Addictions And Self-Harm

A new legal case has been filed in the federal court of California and it accuses social media giants of intentionally disregarding the great harm they impose on users.

From Meta’s apps to TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, and more - the case says all these companies chose to intentionally disregard the dangers they pose to children and teenagers in particular.

It was last year in October when we heard more about this case and how more than two dozen complaints had been filed and that is what led to this single class action lawsuit. But now, the case has picked up the pace and we’re hearing more about it.

Among the long list of accusations, a lot of complaints have to do with the use of algorithms that drive plenty of addictive behaviors that lead to anxiety, sleeplessness, depression, and some major eating disorders that end up in self-harm.

Clearly, the documents being presented at this moment in time were never seen in the past and it’s awfully concerning how so many social media firms are treating this endeavor as one that’s linked to public relations as compared to their own platforms being a real threat to security.

This entails burying internal research that records such harms and also blocking all sorts of safety measures as they tend to decrease the engagement seen there. Lastly, they are defunding all of those teams that keep users’ mental health as a major priority as they’re not finding it profitable.

To be more specific, the suit has added that such big names in the tech world are encouraging the behavior of addicts and bypassing all kinds of parental guidance and controls in place. They’re also failing to confirm the ages of users and end up protecting against different kinds of harmful content and go about multiplying such content too.

The lawsuit is even going about directing a message to Mark Zuckerberg where it says Meta wasn’t on track in terms of succeeding in so many core topics linked to well-being. And the complaint is backed up by the likes of internal studies that Meta conducted on its own. The alarming results showed how its own platforms are huge risks to younger audiences.

But Meta disagrees and says that it is working hard at maximizing security and privacy for users on the app. They also claim to be increasing funding to ensure users' rights are safeguarded in the right manner.

H/T: Mediapost

Read next: This Study Just Provided an Overview of Inflation in the 21st Century
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

OpenAI Launches The Latest GPT-4 With New Features And Performance Improvements

OpenAI appears to be on a roll ever since the launch of its ChatGPT endeavor.

And now, it’s launched a GPT-4 which is the newest version or shall we say the next-generation variant of the famous chatbot that gained viral fame.

A recently published blog post went on to detail more about how it would feature some better offerings including enhanced performance. But out of all the offerings, the biggest one that really caught our attention included the tool answering questions that combine text as well as graphics.

GPT-4 would function over a wider range of domains right now and entails so many documents with both text and pictures as well as screenshots. It has a lot of similar capabilities to the previous version that only used to deal with text-only inputs.

Moreover, it can be argued further how this new product can be further augmented using test-time procedures that were produced solely for the purpose of text-only language models.

But it’s not all fun and games. The bad news here has to do with image inputs not being available for use by the general public as it’s in the mode designated research preview. And as far as when it’s going to be up for grabs for all others, well, there’s no definite word on that.

Instead of the usual ChatGPT with the classic tone, style, verbosity, and more- developers will be getting the chance to avail the AI style and task by taking on directions seen across the system’s message. The latter allows all API users to customize the entire user’s experience within limits.

In the same way, the blog is showing off some great performance charts that showcase the mega improvements at stake. Moreover, there happens to be one case where OpenAI gives the chatbot plenty of simulated exams.

They claim to be using the most advanced tests of them all and they didn’t even make use of any form of specific training either for such exams. So the results published showed how GPT-4 did much better in terms of exam results when compared to its previous counterpart.

As can be seen with the older version of the app, this tool is again limited in terms of getting the latest data regarding various topics. And that is due to the fact that it can only go back as far as 2021.

Moreover, OpenAI claims this new version really does a great job at reducing hallucinations as compared to its previous counterparts. Yet, we can’t call it one that’s fully reliable.

For now, this new offering is only up for grabs to selected developers. They can gain access to it after signing up for it through a waitlist. Meanwhile, the general public may check this out by signing up for ChatGPT Plus which comes at a price tag of $20 each month.

There are even some reports about OpenAI launching a new subscription tier that paves the way for greater levels of access.

Read next: ChatGPT Smashes Records: Surpasses 1 billion Visits in February 2023
by Dr. Hura Anwar via Digital Information World

The Future of AI Might Be Too Expensive to Get To

AI based tech has been coming up for quite a long time now, but in spite of the fact that this is the case it never really reached the dizzying heights that it is currently enjoying until ChatGPT entered the scene. The AI chatbot proved that Large Language Models could be a mainstay of various industries, but it turns out that there is a significant problem that might inhibit the growth of any form of AI in the future.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that AI might be too expensive to advance as of right now. One need only look at the tale of an AI startup by the name of Latitude to understand what is going on.

Latitude created AI Dungeon, which allowed users to create fantasy stories based on some text prompts. As AI Dungeon became more and more popular, it also became more expensive than might have been the case otherwise. Eventually, Latitude ended up burning over two hundred thousand dollars a month just to keep their AI operational.

That can be a major problem because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up making AI financially unsustainable in the near future. It also might give major players like Meta, Alphabet and Microsoft an unfair advantage with all things having been considered and taken into account.

ChatGPT is about to get a lot more expensive to manage as well. The AI chatbot reached the milestone of a hundred million users back in January. That means that the costs of running the AI in the month of January alone would’ve been well in excess of $40 million.

Bing is going to be even pricier. If Microsoft is serious about Bing Chat, they will need to spend an estimated $4 billion in order to make the infrastructure robust enough to handle all of the user queries without compromising on the quality of the answers that they are given. Such a price tag could very well stop innovation in its tracks.

H/T: CNBC

Read next: Microsoft Plans Major Changes For Its New Bing Including More Chat Turn Sessions And Replacing Featured Answers With Chat Answers
by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

The World’s Biggest NFT Marketplace Has Been Leaking Sensitive User Data

NFTs were considered to be the next big thing, but in spite of the fact that this is the case they ended up fizzling out without having all the much of an impact. It turns out that it wasn’t just money that NFT users ended up losing due to their poor investment choices. The biggest NFT marketplace out there, OpenSea, has also been leaking user data without realizing it.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that there is a vulnerability in OpenSea’s source code that allowed hackers to find out the full names of anonymous users. While the vulnerability has reportedly been fixed, it will still have made users of the platform far less safe than might have been the case otherwise.

According to researchers working at Imperva, it might have been the cross-site search feature that was to blame. The feature did not limit the use of cross origin searches, and this all originated from the resizer library for each individual iFrame that the website was using with all things having been considered and taken into account.

The resizer adjusts the boundaries of the website according to the user’s device and other properties. Malicious actors sent out emails to these users so that they could discover these dimensions, and they would then cross reference them to figure out which user corresponded to which ID.

Users have had their full names along with their wallet IDs leaked. This just goes to show how lax security has been in the world of crypto, and the world of NFTs is clearly no different. Issues like this make NFTs an even more dangerous asset because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up resulting in massive financial losses that would be extremely difficult for people to get over.

OpenSea was slow to act here. It will be interesting to see if any of the victims of this fraud end up filing lawsuits against the company and speeding up the decline of NFTs.

Read next: 88% of Passwords Used By Businesses Consist of Basic Phrases
by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World